A Failed Poisoning
by 0Verdigris0
Summary: After being labeled 'Wicked', Elphaba has become the Wicked Witch of the West. After a successful surgery, she is notified of Dorothy and company, and acts accordingly. Direct WoO tie-in. Prequel of sorts to 'Aiding Annoyances' - read them together.


_I've been meaning to write this for a while. I love writing tie-ins. :)_

_Credit to the creators of The Wizard of Oz and to Gregory Maguire_

* * *

The Wicked Witch of the West walked briskly up several flights of stairs to the highest point of her tower – her spell room. It was now serving also as an operation room, with her latest patient – another one of her formerly wingless monkeys – waking up from her anesthesia.

The Witch had become hardened over the many years in hiding and being labeled as Wicked. It was a part of her now, one in which she invested less and less effort in stopping. The final straw had been when that girl had landed a house – a _house_ of all things – on her sister. On Nessa. Her _sister_.

She shook her head in annoyance as she reached the top. What an unlikely murder weapon.

The Witch pushed open the door to her spell room, and instantly Elphaba was back. Magic was truly the only thing that made her feel happy, feel Elphaba again.

Elphaba walked into the room, nodding at Chistery when he flew to the windowsill and perched there. He had become her second-in-command of sorts. As much as a monkey who refused to learn how to speak could be. He watched Elphaba as she moved to the female snow monkey and began checking her back.

Elphaba kneeled in front of the monkey, who was on her stomach, and scratched her on the head, giving her a small smile. It was the only time she ever smiled – when a surgery had gone well.

Straightening, happiness left her face as she motioned at Chistery. He couldn't speak but she knew he could understand. "Please tell her that her surgery went extremely well and to not move her wings. She shouldn't move unless absolutely necessary, and I will assist her with any nutrition and relieving herself. Nobody, save you and I, are to enter this room." She had focused her attention on the door when saying this, and glanced over to Chistery to check that he had understood. Once he nodded she exited, moving back downstairs.

Elphaba was halfway down the first flight of stairs when she heard excited noises coming from the spell room. She had heard Chistery relay messages for her several times before, and that was not what this was. Whirling around, she all but ran back up, entering the room again.

There was Chistery, motioning enthusiastically to her looking glass. That couldn't be good. As she moved to the glass, Elphaba disappeared, replaced by the Wicked Witch of the West once again. She was only slightly aware of Chistery moving beside her to look into the glass as well.

She cackled softly when she saw who it was. Dorothy. Again. Couldn't she go bother somebody else? Oh, and there were those three other outsiders, of course.

"So, you won't take warning, eh? All the worse for you." The Witch glanced around her room, not noticing the other two. Aha, she would do that. "I'll take care of you now, instead of later!"

Moving quickly to a table, the Witch grabbed a bowl and a spoon. She had prepared this spell previously, when practicing. It only needed a pinch of spices and of poison to be added in, which she quickly did and mixed together.

Her want of her sister's shoes had completely taken over the Witch, as it did whenever she saw that little brat.

"Now my beauties... Something with poison in it I think. With poison, but attractive to the eye and soothing to the smell," she said as she moved back over to her looking glass. Holding the bowl in one hand, she began speaking the foreign language, her free hand moving in an intricate pattern. As she did this, the liquid slowly began to evaporate out of the bowl. It would rise a few inches and seem to disappear, but the Witch knew that it was moving to that field as fast as lightning.

"Poppies," she directed the spell. "Poppies will put them to sleep. Now they'll sleep." She dropped the bowl, which rolled against the wall instead of shattering, and laughed. "Sleep."

Without looking at Chistery, the Witch turned and moved towards the door, cackling as she heard that metal man screaming out for help. They could try and try, but they weren't going to be waking them up. Ever. Or until the Witch lifted the spell – whichever came first. She would have an early lunch and then go and take those shoes off that little girl's feet. Nobody could hear them and nobody would believe them. She had time.

The Witch was a bite into her apple when she heard Chistery yell.

"Elphaba!"

She instantly became enraged, dropped her apple and hurried back to the tower.

He called out that name once more right before she entered. Once she was in the room the Witch glared at Chistery. "Elphaba isn't here! I have _told_ you to never refer to me by that name ever again! Learn a different word, anything would be more useful than _that_! Or have you not realized that I'm the 'Wicked Witch'?"

He just sat there and let her yell at him, and the Witch stopped. It must be important if he was staying and allowing himself to be yelled at. He was pointing to the glass. The Witch, an annoyed expression on her face, stomped over to the glass and looked into it.

Really? She became furious once again. Another opportunity to get the shoes gone. "Curses! Somebody always helps that girl!" And she knew who it was, at least this time. Glinda. She had always used to... No. No memories. "Shoes or no shoes, I'm still good enough to conquer her!"

Moving away from the glass the Witch moved to grab her broom. "And woe to those who try to stop me!"

She would go and get the brat to surrender, or at least intimidate and harass her. That would put the Witch in a better mood. Who cares if Glinda saw her; the Witch couldn't hide forever. Jumping up and standing on the sill, the Witch glanced down at Chistery, the faint traces of an apology hidden in her face. But Chistery saw, and he nodded very slightly. Forgiven.

So the Witch sat on her broom and spoke to it. "To the Emerald City fast as lightning!" And she braced herself and, sure enough, the broom zoomed away, heading due east.


End file.
